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Abstracts summarizing recent research overseen by the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research - 2004

The WHO Collaborating Center for Smallpox and other Poxviruses at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta: 2004 report on the variola repository

Victoria Olson, Yu Li, Tiara Morehead, Inger Damon M.D., Ph.D.

Poxvirus Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, United States of America.

Please direct all queries to the authors at the addresses given.

The WHO Collaborating Center in Atlanta, GA continues to maintain the collection of variola strains received from worldwide laboratories. This collection was derived largely from viruses grown, on embryonated eggs, from isolates collected and characterized during the intensification of the smallpox eradication campaign. In the past year, no new variola viruses have been moved from the repository to generate working stocks; work within the maximum containment laboratory has only recently resumed. Progress has been made, and will be described, on generating secure databases, which address WHO recommendations as well as U.S. select agent requirements, to track usage of virus.